Dominic Thiem is hoping for an opening win at his premiere in the home country of his coach Nicolas Massu. The 29-year-old from Lower Austria, who had already planned for Santiago de Chile last year but then had to pull out after an injury that flared up again, will meet local hero Cristian Garin on Tuesday evening (local time). After his failed tour of South America so far, the world number 99 would like. finally collect more points.
Thiem has known Garin, who is also a protégé of captain Nicolas Massu at the Davis Cup, for a long time. “We trained together a few times, including here yesterday. It’s never easy to play against a local hero because the fans will support you,” said the Lower Austrian at a media event in Santiago. “I’m looking forward to it, he’s a strong player and it will be a good challenge. The match will be on Tuesday evening, there will definitely be a good atmosphere,” said the former third in the world rankings.
According to the latest world rankings, the game will be a duel between two ranking neighbors: Thiem is just ahead of Garin 99. These are clearly different requirements than in autumn 2020, when they last met. Thiem, as the newly crowned US Open winner, clearly won 6: 3 6: 2 in the round of 16 in the Wiener Stadthalle. “The game isn’t really in my head anymore. Everything was completely different back then, indoors and on hard court, low bounce, and I think Cristian’s favorite surface is definitely clay. That’s where he gets his best results.” In addition, the match was two and a half years ago, and many things have changed since then.
“Very interesting relationship”
Thiem was also asked about his almost four-year coaching relationship with Massu. “It’s a very interesting relationship. We started and immediately had great success together,” he recalled the 2019 triumph in Indian Wells. “The first year was great, the second year with the US Open title too, and then there were challenging times with the wrist injury and difficulties with the results. But we stayed together the whole time and hopefully we can work hard together to improve the results again.”
So far this year, the 29-year-old has played a total of seven matches including the Davis Cup and the qualification in Adelaide, only celebrating one win in Buenos Aires. For the 17-times ATP tournament winner, who is in Santiago thanks to a wildcard, every success is now very important for self-confidence. Should Thiem win against Garin, the number three seeded Argentinian Sebastien Baez (0-1 record against him) would wait in the round of 16.
